Problem with Gens freezing

[n_w95482]

I've been having a problem with Gens freezing on me when I first open it up. I can't even get to the screen with the multicolored blurring effect (the "Idle" screen). I tried deleting the files and redownloading it as well as going through the registry. This has happened before as well, I solved it last time by reformatting my hard drive. Last time I also tried using 2.12a but it didn't make any difference . Can someone help me to get Gens to work? I don't want to have to reformat my HD every couple of weeks just so that it will stay working. Gens was working perfectly this past weekend and I haven't installed anything major or done any hardware changes/tweaks lately...

[Snake785]

hmm...do you remember if you installed anything before it started freezing? Maybe it could be DirectX being messed (but then you did have this problem before so that might not be it....).

[Wizardry]

McAffee/Norton issues..., Read if you have an anti-virus program..
Copy and paste ,taken from gens forum.
Do you have an anti virus program running in the background? Something like Norton AV will have auto protect running in the background and I seem to remember that slowing Gens as it start as it checks it isn't doing anything suspicious for some people. It isn't, don't worry (assuming you have the official release or another trusted source), but disabling the AV should help if that's what's causing it.

(Just to clarify, right clicking on the AV icon in the systray and just choosing "exit/close/quit" will only remove the icon from your systray, NOT disable the program. You need to choose the "disable" option, as the icon itself isn't the problem.)

Hope that helps

[n_w95482]

I tried closing all programs related to McAfee but it still doesn't work . I also don't have McAfee set to run background scans. I don't think I installed anything since this weekend. I'll try checking DirectX though. I don't want to reformat it because I reformatted it on December 27th (only a couple of weeks ago) and if it didn't solve it this time I don't know if reformatting it again will.

Edit: I'm currently scanning my computer with Ad-Aware and Spybot just in case .

Edit 2: I checked Dxdiag and did the DirectDraw and D3D tests, both reported that everything was OK. Should I try turning down/off hardware acceleration?

[Allnatural]

Shot in the dark...

Set your desktop to 16-bit color. Maybe your computer doesn't like it when Gens forces the switch.

[n_w95482]

Originally Posted by Allnatural

Set your desktop to 16-bit color. Maybe your computer doesn't like it when Gens forces the switch.

I just tried doing that but it didn't work .

[Snake785]

Try turning off hardware acceleration, you never know, it might work :P

[Archlyn]

You have an nforce2 based board, yes?

When you installed the mainboard drivers,did you that experimental IDE driver nvidia provides?

If so, remove it

Right click My computer

click properties

click Hardware tab

click the "Device manager" button

click the + button next to the IDE/ATAPI Devices

Select the Nvidia something-or-other (should be the thrid one in that group)

Double click it, click the Driver tab and click the "Roll back Driver" and click yes.

If it asks you to reboot, do so, then doublecheck it (following the above steps) and make sure it says "Standard dual-channel PCI IDE Controller"

if it does, your good to go

I don't know why this works, but it does. this is a one of the many bugs in Nvidia's IDE driver, don't use it.

[Clements]

Uninstall the kb824141 hotfix if you have it. 'Tis a known Gens issue that the hotfix on certain computers can cause Gens to hang.

[n_w95482]

Thanks for the help everyone! Thanks to Archlyn's tip, Gens now works . I also tried uninstalling the hotfix but it didn't work. I'll try reinstalling it to see if it will work with Gens. Again, thanks for the help everyone .

I was wondering if using the standard IDE driver would have a negative effect on performance. I tested my hard drive's reading speed in Nero and it still hit 60 megabytes/sec.